The Christian life is not a process of trying,
it is a process of trusting.
Howard Hendricks
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Contentment, Misery, Trust, Release
But godliness with contentment is great gain.
1 Timothy 6:6
Contentment is a quality of life that sorts out the pain and
releases it and claims the valuable things of life. Think of life as a
container of dirty water. Contentment enables us to not stir up the
dirt, which keeps the water muddy, but to allow it to settle so it can
be removed. There is plenty of dirt in our lives that requires quietness
(being still) to settle it so we are clarified (purified). We are not
able to dispose of the dirt of life while it is emotionally stirred up.
That is how time reduces the dirt (pain). When we keep agitating the
dirt there is no contentment and life stays bogged down and clouded with
emotions. It causes us to never be able to turn loose of the emotional
garbage that we keep stirred up by replaying it in our minds. We are
unable to get a mental hold on it. Sometimes the toxic emotional
condition of our lives is embedded in our mind and continues to grow
more toxins. When that is the case, the open emotional sore (a generator
of toxins) must be killed out. When we rest on our faith with
contentment in God, the dirt settles and we can dispose of it.

Prayer: God, I live in turmoil because I replay the misery in my mind.
Show me how to trust You and rest comfortably so my turmoil can turn to
contentment. Help me become willing to release my turmoil and all the
unproductive emotions that accompany it. Amen.
Devotionals-L; 8/30/2004
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